The current Senate voting system is almost like a lottery. You vote for one person, then your vote ends up electing somebody totally different.

Convoluted, complicated, and often secretive preference deals means you have no control over where your vote ends up. Some micro-parties are even created for the sole purpose of funnelling preferences and being a cog in the machine that manipulates your vote, distorting our democracy.

Greens democracy spokesperson Senator Lee Rhiannon has urged Labor Party officials to ensure far reaching political donation reform is a top priority for debate and decision at their July National Conference.

"Labor need to come out of its national conference with a strong plan to place limits on private donations to political parties and candidates," Senator Rhiannon said.

Greens democracy spokesperson Senator Lee Rhiannon has urged the Prime Minister and leader of the opposition to move quickly to clean up electoral funding laws following the reports linking major political fund raising with a campaign to allow a known mafia figure to stay in Australia.

Today's reports that the Mafia are attending political party fundraisers and donating to Liberal and Labor candidates puts the spotlight on the need for urgent overhaul of electoral funding laws, Greens democracy spokesperson Senator Lee Rhiannon said.

With the threshold for the disclosure of political donations set to hit $13,000 from 1 July the Greens plan to step up their campaign for greater transparency for donations to political parties, Greens democracy spokesperson Senator Lee Rhiannon said.

"The increase in the disclosure threshold to $13,000 makes a farce of the Abbott government's stated commitment to transparency," Senator Rhiannon said.

Senator RHIANNON: Mr Medcraft, in your opening statement you spoke very extensively and strongly about the need to change the culture. In this context, can you update the committee on ASIC's work to strengthen whistleblower protection in the private sector?

The Australian Greens are calling on state and federal governments to immediately move to prohibit universities from making political donations in response to the newly released NSW auditor-general's report which states that 30 per cent of universities in the state have made donations to political parties since 2008.

Reforming political donations, ending corruption, and giving people a say in how Australian government works.

The Greens are committed to reforms that give people a greater say in how Australian government works. We want proportional representation in all parliaments so that voters’ diversity is better represented. The Greens are campaigning to strengthen the democratic values of our voting system, with the Senate voting reforms a key step that returned preferences back to the voter.

We are working to reform political donations and have Bills in parliament that will reduce the influence of the big end of town. We are also working to strengthen the federal lobbyist code of conduct so we know which industries are trying to influence our politicians. The Greens are committed to separating business interests from politics by introducing a national anti-corruption watchdog. We will continue to work to ensure that those who are marginalised and with little power have their voice heard and can genuinely participate in the political process.